As you see, each building block is about 3/4 the size of one of these young girls. Compare that with the image of the Sphinx from some days earlier and you should get a sense of how absolutely towering the pyramids are.

The point of all of this was to illustrate the deceptive nature of famous photographs of the Sphinx. In many of the iconic photos of the Sphinx, the use of a telephoto lens makes the Sphinx appear equally as large as the pyramids. But, of course, that's not to imply that the Sphinx is tiny.

If you can find the minuscule policeman in the photo, it should illustrate the sheer imposing nature of the Pyramid of Khufu. During my first trip to the pyramids in 2003, there were no cordons to keep people away from the stones at the base, nor were there many policemen around. At that time, people would attempt to climb the pyramids before being whistled down after reaching the 4th or 5th level. If the practice continued, sooner or later, a newspaper headline would've read "German tourist tumbles to his death from the top of the Pyramid of Khufu." Now, fortunately, a rope keeps people at least 10 meters (yards) away from the first level of stones.